A solo indie dev behind a relatively small game has revealed that, somehow, Google’s AI had gained access to and shared unrevealed information about their game. Naturally, said developer was baffled to learn this was the case, especially when the “only place where the info exists in a digital form” was within a private Google Doc.
This information comes via a Reddit thread written by developer Klub Kofta Studio (thank you, GamesRadar), the solo dev behind the tower defense game Operation Octo on Steam. As Klub Kofta explained, they spotted that a user in their Discord server had been asking Google AI some questions about Operation Octo, and received some “obscure info that should not be available” in response.
“Out of curiosity, I chimed in and asked the player to ask the AI about future contents in my game,” continued Klub Kofta. “Somehow, the AI spitted out the exact & highly specific character name ‘Vantage Tripod, which I had never mentioned to anyone. As far as I know, the only place where the info exists in a digital form is inside one of my own Google Docs, and this was NOT me speaking to the AI!”
But Google has directly denied that information in your Google Drive—or any Google service for that matter—can be used to train its AI models. In 2023, Google’s Product VP, Yulie Kwon Kim, stated that Google does “not use your Workspace data to train or improve the underlying generative AI and large language models that power Bard, Search, and other systems outside of Workspace without permission.”
So, if that’s the case, is Klub Kofta simply mistaken? It’s possible, but there’s a far more likely explanation: the quote I just shared with you is woefully out of date.
This isn’t a case of me trying to mislead you, as Yulie Kwon Kim’s statement is the most up-to-date official statement I could find published on Google’s official blog. Turns out that Google has officially announced changes to its AI-training policies, though—it’s just that said information came in the form of an email. As TechCrunch covered in July, Google announced via a customer email in June that it now uses your saved history and media “to provide, develop, and improve its services (such as training generative AI models) and to protect Google, its users, and the public with the help of human reviewers.”
Oh, and by the way, that setting is opt-out, not opt-in, which means that you’ve probably been automatically signed up to share this info with Google already if you’re signed up for any of its services. Here’s a direct link to your Google Personalization settings if you’d like to turn that off.
